Daming Yinghua

Chapter 111 Xiao Zheng's Interim Financial Report

Three days later, Zheng Haizhu left Zheng Shoukuan in Zhenjiang, followed Wu Bangde to the preparations for the insurance company, and chartered a boat himself, bringing the recruited young and strong men and women fiber workers, as well as a soldier hired by the old general Qi Jin. The captain and two veterans went south to Songjiang Yunjian Wharf.

On the boat, after Zheng Haizhu gave the trackers a brief lecture, he divided the fifty men into five groups, and each group elected a "squad leader".

When Zheng Haizhu was recruiting, he deliberately avoided recruiting more than five people from the same village, and he also paid attention to blurring the concept of "villagers" when grouping, but each group would retain one person who could read simple Chinese characters or basic arithmetic.

Sure enough, the five "squad leaders" who were finally elected were all "intellectuals" among this group of people.

As the "leader" of the four female fiber workers, Zheng Haizhu appointed Dong Erya, who has a baby and a dog, to be the "leader".

Arriving in Songjiang so smoothly, after completing the procedures of visiting the master's house, signing the employment contract, and settling in the yamen, Zheng Haizhu arranged for everyone to receive the moon silver and live in the family dormitory on the north side of Wenzhe Garden. After another day of rest, he began to follow the three The instructor of Qi's army practiced mandarin duck formation.

Han Ximeng told Zheng Haizhu that Han Xiying had already left Nanzhili in just ten days.

"Azhu, the second uncle came to ask me first what I think about dealing with the third girl. I know that the second uncle is a fair elder, but the third girl is the only blood of the third uncle after all. If Shen committed suicide, that Feng Abao would also decide It's a capital offense. The government doesn't really want to get involved with Sanya, the accomplice of Miss Jinshen. The second uncle means that it's better to drive her away. I nodded, and the second uncle asked someone to talk about it. The military general who wanted a concubine, Qiao Yiqi, took Sanya to Liaodong."

Zheng Haizhu was taken aback.

ah?Qiao Yiqi?
Qiao Yiqi is a local, a martial arts graduate, and has been leading the army in the Northeast.Because there are not many Jiangnan people who were guerrillas or participated in the anti-golden war in the Northeast, Qiao Yiqi from Shanghai and Mao Wenlong from Hangzhou were famous in later generations, so Zheng Haizhu roughly remembered that at most two or three years later, Qiao Yiqi should have broken through in the Battle of Sarhu After being hopeless, he died in front of the enemy.

Qiao Yiqi has passed the age of forty, his wife and son are all in Songjiang, looking for Han Xiying as a concubine is just like Mao Wenlong, looking for a younger one to serve him in the north.

Even so, Zheng Haizhu still felt that Han Xiying was cheap, and the accomplice was also a criminal, but she could still be spared from prison and take care of the daily life of the patriotic soldiers, but she didn't know if she would die in a military disaster.

This matter is overturned.

Zheng Haizhu, who had calmed down, began to make a staged summary in his mind.

This midsummer in the 45th year of Wanli was the day when she traveled to Daming for three years.

She needs to take care of her current relationship with the natives of Daming, as well as the assets at hand.

The first is the educational enlightenment career that she values ​​most in her heart, Shoukuan School.The current school directors are brothers Zhang Dai and Zhang Yanke from Shaoxing. Zheng Haizhu plans to gradually develop the school in accordance with the model of an education foundation. What is certain is that she does not intend to use this area as a field for personal profit.

Secondly, her relationship with the Han family developed as she planned, gradually changing from employment to cooperation.

At present, there are two types of foreign trade lists sent by Liu Shimin from the Weaving Bureau to the Han family.

One is various derivatives of silk-cotton blended Zhang velvet and Songjiang cloth. Han Zhongwen's own weaving workshop is the supplier, and Han Zhongwen also takes the profits.

Han Zhongwen is not stingy, and he knows that Zheng Haizhu has the favor of Liu Gonggong and has been through troubles together. Therefore, even if Zheng Haizhu left the Han House with Han Ximeng, Han Zhongwen still asked the accountant to pay Zheng Haizhu a monthly salary of three to two months.

Zheng Haizhu is well-deserved for this, it is like a company in later generations raising a public relations executive who can do a good job in government relations.In Daming, which was still a feudal society after all, a woman who didn’t need to sell herself to a harem, her husband’s family, or a brothel received three liang of silver a month without paying taxes, which was indeed a high salary.

Another type of order issued by Eunuch Liu is clothing that has no oriental characteristics and is made according to Western customs. It mainly consists of baroque men's shirts, girdles, half trousers with lace, and women's dresses. Han Ximeng himself serves as a dowry The tailor shop of the property took over, and the profits went into Han Ximeng's private money account, not to mention Zheng Haizhu, even the Gu family had no share.But because this tailor shop is currently located in the banana garden of Shoukuan School, Zheng Haizhu also devotes part of his energy to managing it. Han Ximeng's monthly salary to Zheng Haizhu is five taels of silver.

In this way, in terms of executive income, Zheng Haizhu gets nearly 100 taels of silver every year.

But this little money is enough to enjoy the flowers and birds, and to play with petty bourgeois sentiments, but it is far from enough to describe her blueprint.

Therefore, Zheng Haizhu knows very well that his business, contacts, and research and development must continue to expand.

Yan Siqi's dividends to Zheng Haizhu, plus the reinvested silver, totaled [-] taels. This time the agreement was arranged by Zheng Haizhu in mainland China.

5000 taels were given to Mao Wenlong’s son, Mao Chengbei, as start-up capital to bid for the establishment of the “Haoming” trading company in Hangzhou with Yan Siqi, Zheng Zhilong, and Zheng Haizhu as the original shareholders. The second time to sell goods in Liaodong.From his son's letter, Mao Wenlong learned that Brother Yan had occupied Tainan and was about to be named chieftain by the imperial court. He replied immediately, asking his son to invest the 500 taels of bonus he saved last time as a share in the "Hao Ming" trading company.

The second part of the 8000 taels of silver, 800 taels, is used to purchase raw materials such as silk thread, silk, and cotton cloth, and to pay the salaries of embroidery workers. , handkerchiefs, high-end fans, and two-toed cotton socks were sent by Zheng Zhilong and Tang Bo to Yuegang and handed over to Yan Siqi, who owns the boat lead, and then sold to Japan. This part of the proceeds, according to the profits of normal sea trade, will be paid back in early autumn. Zheng Haizhu should be able to get a few thousand taels of dividends again, and take back the [-] taels that were previously moved to Daishan Island for emergency support.

The third part of 7000 taels, 1000 taels, 5000 taels were given to Qi Jin, 500 taels were used as the start-up capital for the establishment of a shipping insurance company, 300 taels were given to Wu Bangde as the cost of training intelligence personnel alone, and [-] taels were entrusted to Wu Bangde to replace Zheng Shoukuan. Go to Nanjing Guozijian to donate a so-called "handsome boy" crown.

So, at the last count, Zheng Haizhu only had 200 taels left, and it was estimated that he would spend it soon.

Because the future god of war who loves firearms, Lu Xiangsheng, Mr. Lu, this top student, plans to lead a scientific research team before the provincial examination next year.

……

Before coming to Zhenjiang, Lu Xiangsheng seriously mentioned to Zheng Haizhu that since as early as the time of Lord Jiajing, Wang Hung, an official of the Guangdong Sea Patrol Road, successfully imitated the Frankie's mother-in-law blunderbuss and small cannons, then the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty must also continue to imitate , and even improve the new firearms that foreigners keep appearing.

What Lu Xiangsheng said touched Zheng Haizhu.

At the beginning of the year, Zheng Haizhu asked Yan Siqi about the foreign artillery after seeing the ship-borne guns of the Spanish fleet when he was in distress off the Penghu sea.Yan Siqi had directly seen the Dutch fleet in Hirado Port, Japan, so he told Zheng Haizhu with certainty that the Dutch guns were no longer the breech-loading type of the Frankies, but the spindle-shaped smooth-bore type.

Zheng Haizhu understood that it should be the "Red Barbarian Cannon" that Xu Guangqi advocated for the imperial court to buy a few years later.

In the real historical line, the Red Barbarian Cannon later played an important role in repelling the Jin army in the Battle of Ningyuan, and it was a magic weapon for the Ming army to defend the city and retreat from the enemy.But during the reign of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji used craftsmen among the Han captives to successfully imitate the "Red Cannon" belonging to the Later Jin Army, and because of the taboo of the word "Yi", it was renamed "Red Cannon".Later, when the Jin army attacked the Ming army and Li Zicheng's army, it could no longer do without cannons. The gate of Yangzhou city guarded by Shi Kefa was bombed down by the red cannons.

Therefore, Lu Xiangsheng's brain hole is right. The wheels of history are rolling forward. When the world's military history enters the era of hot weapons, who can imitate guns faster, improve them more, and gain intergenerational advantages better? Who can take the initiative.

Have to make muskets and spindle cannons.

For firecrackers, there is Zhao Shizhen's "Sacred Artifact Spectrum" in the library.

The spindle-shaped red cannon can make Zheng Zhilong, who grew up in Macau, try to get blueprints from the Portuguese cannon factory.

At the same time, Zheng Haizhu pondered that Zhenjiang, like Suzhou, was once the center of Wu State’s rule.

The foundry industry knows everything, nothing more than process problems such as furnace temperature, casting material composition, redox process and so on.Then, Zhenjiang was able to cast copper in the Spring and Autumn Period, and it must be able to cast iron and steel after the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Zheng Haizhu told Lu Xiangsheng that there might be a craftsman in iron casting in Zhenjiang. Mr. Lu, who is extremely smart and has a clear goal, really found the right place during the few days when Zheng Haizhu was interviewing the tracker.

Sunjia Village, Danyang, Zhenjiang.

It turns out that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Helu, King of Wu, acquired the famous swords of the Yue Kingdom, such as Ganjiang Moxie, Zhanlu, Yuchang, and Juque, and also established many bronze sword casting workshops in Danyang of the Wu Kingdom.However, after King Goujian of Yue defeated King Fuchai of Wu, he moved a large number of foundry craftsmen from the state of Wu to the state of Yue. Sunjia Village in Danyang, a base for casting and smelting bronze swords and bronze wares, also faded out of the vision of the rulers of all dynasties.

Fortunately, unlike the short life of many dynasties, the craftsmanship mastered by intelligent laborers can be passed down from generation to generation in the long river of history.

When Lu Xiangsheng was in Sunjia Village, he actually found a master who could use ancient methods to forge iron and forge swords.

(End of this chapter)